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Listed under:  History  >  World history  >  Australian history
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Pacific Islander workers on a coffee plantation, c1900

This black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islander labourers manually gathering coffee beans from lines of bushes on a Kuranda coffee plantation on the Atherton Tableland in Queensland. This image shows male, female and child labourers standing among the shoulder-high coffee bushes. The Pacific Islanders ...

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Pacific Islanders harvesting cane on Bingera Plantation, 1884

This sepia photograph shows around ten Pacific Islander labourers in a sugar-cane field at Bingera Plantation near Bundaberg in Queensland as the cane is being harvested. A well-dressed European man and two young children pose in the cleared foreground, while in the mid-ground stands a fully laden horsedrawn wagon with ...

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Students digging trenches at Ascot State School, Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows schoolchildren digging air-raid trenches in the grounds of Ascot State School in Brisbane, Queensland, on 24 January 1942. Working in the slit trenches, knee deep or deeper, the male students use picks and shovels to dig and remove the earth. A man digging with them on the right is ...

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Women stapling ration books, 1943

This is a sepia-toned photograph, taken in April 1943, of young women at the South Australian Government Printing Office using large machines to staple ration books.

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Aviator William Ewart Hart's biplane, 1911

This is a 23.4 cm x 38.8 cm sepia-toned photograph of the homemade biplane of one of Australia's first aviators, William Ewart Hart (1885-1943), after its 1911 landing on the Sydney Showground, New South Wales. A crowd has gathered around the aircraft, obscuring Hart from view.

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Indigenous Australian man, Bedgi-bedgi (Bidgee-bidgee), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Bedgi-bedgi (also known as Bidgee-bidgee), said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe. He has patterned scarification on his arms, chest and abdomen, ...

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Sedge hunting baskets, 1936, 1980s

These are four hunting baskets from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. All are made from sedge grass. The top bag on the left and the two at the bottom were made in the late 1980s, while the bag on the top right-hand side was collected in 1936. The oldest bag is 113.5 cm high, 51 cm wide and 28 cm in diameter. The other ...

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Pacific Islander labourers planting sugar cane, Mackay, 1870s

This is a black-and-white photograph showing large groups of poorly dressed indentured Pacific Islanders planting sugar cane on a plantation at Mackay in Queensland. Fourteen or more Pacific Islanders are manually placing sugar-cane cuttings at regular intervals in long furrows. Two mounted white men oversee their work ...

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Pacific Islander labourers in the Mackay District, late 1800s

This posed black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islanders by their grass hut homes, probably on a Mackay sugar plantation in Queensland. Some are seated on logs or rough timber benches and one woman can also be seen. They are dressed in Western-style clothes. More huts can be seen on the cleared rise in the ...

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Air-raid shelter in Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows two women and two uniformed servicemen in a backyard featuring a homemade air-raid shelter during the Second World War. The two men, Private Dick of the AIF and US soldier Tom Squires, are standing in the shelter with Anthea Dyke while Doreen Smythe is jokingly pointing a hose at them. ...

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Diphtheria ward of the Melbourne Hospital, Christmas 1900

This is a black-and-white photograph taken in the grounds of the Melbourne Hospital on Christmas Day, 1900. It shows children from the hospital's diphtheria ward seated in a large wicker pushcart. Two nurses, one of whom holds an infant, stand behind the children. On the right of the photograph is a doctor. The photograph ...

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The 1864 eight-hour day demonstration

This is a black-and-white print that shows the eight-hour day demonstration entering the Zoological Gardens (now the Royal Melbourne Zoo) in Melbourne, Victoria. The large procession of people, some carrying banners and flags, can be seen in the background, while in the foreground, several spectators including a few policemen ...

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'Chinese carpenters at work, Emerald Hill', c1867

This is a black-and-white print that shows a group of Chinese carpenters in a workshop at Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) around 1867. A European man, who may be an artist, observes two of the carpenters at work. The carpenters appear to be making celestial carvings, which were spiritual objects for the Chinese, but which ...

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The 'Southern Cross' reaches Sydney, 1928

This is a black-and-white photograph of the 'Southern Cross' biplane arriving in Sydney and being greeted by reporters and photographers and a large contingent of police after the record-breaking flight of Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew across the Pacific. Signed portraits of the crew are superimposed upon the photograph, ...

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City railway terminus, Melbourne, 1854

This is a black-and-white lithograph measuring 12.5 cm x 20 cm, depicting the city terminus of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company in Melbourne in 1854. An early type of steam locomotive is shown approaching a platform where passengers and freight are waiting. The drawing was made by Samuel Thomas Gill and his ...

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'Discussing the site at Tumut', 1902

This is a black-and-white photograph, measuring 18.4 cm x 24.0 cm, taken in 1902 during a tour of inspection by senators from the Federal Parliament of possible sites for the proposed federal capital. Senators and local dignitaries are posing in groups on a hillside, ostensibly discussing the merits of a site at Tumut in ...

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Loading camels, early 20th century

This is a sepia-toned photograph measuring 10.3 cm x 5.0 cm, taken in outback Australia in the early 20th century, probably by John Flynn (1880-1951). The photograph shows three men, one of whom is an Afghan cameleer, loading a camel with two wool bales. A camel already loaded stands in the foreground with other camels ...

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Simpson with his donkey at Gallipoli, 1915 - asset 2

This is a 1915 black-and-white photograph measuring 10.3 cm x 7.3 cm, of John Simpson Kirkpatrick (1892-1915) and his donkey, taken at Gallipoli. The man and the donkey are standing on the sand in front of a pile of packing cases containing supplies for the troops.

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Bethany in the Barossa Hills, 1847

This is a hand-coloured lithographic print showing Bethany, a village established by German immigrants, at the foot of the Barossa Hills in South Australia in the 1840s. The lithograph was listed as Plate 60 in the book 'South Australia illustrated', published in 1847. It measures 29.7 cm x 34 cm.

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The 'West Australian' polling board for the Federation referendum, 1900

This is a black-and-white photograph that shows a huge polling board with the results of the Federation referendum in Western Australia, which was held on 31 July 1900. The board shows that Western Australia voted to join the Commonwealth of Australia by 44,652 votes to 19,636. It also shows the results for each of the ...